Breathe.


    The ground erupted, sending a streak of dirt and mud high into the air. The air sparked, set alight by the fires of hell, prickling his skin like a field of thorns. Sweat ran down Lleyton’s face.


    Breathe.


    A Revenant swooped overhead, its wide wings blocking the sun for a moment and casting the battlefield in shadow. It unleashed a dragon’s roar and put its orange fury on the humans below. They burnt and screamed until Lleyton heard them no more.


    Breathe.


    Bodies laid all around him, stretching out to the horizon, and blood stained the soil. The winged Revenant fell onto the earth, and the earth shook. It let out a bestial yell before it was silenced.


    Breathe.


    Lleyton’s injury stung. The wound, scratched onto his chest by three claws of a Revenant, bled and gushed out blood. Lleyton’s hands rested over it in an attempt to apply pressure, but he couldn’t muster any strength. Lleyton could barely see; a combination of blood and sweat ran over his eyes, and the sounds of battle were barely heard, muffled as if he was underwater. He tried to breathe but to no avail, and figures blurred into one, Revenant and human turned the same. Lleyton felt the world moving away, and he was falling out of it.


    A white, shapely silhouette appeared before Lleyton’s sunken body, graced by the sun and the light sky behind it.


    It whispered to Lleyton. “Wanderer, come back. It is not your time yet. It is not your time yet.” Soft hands pressed onto his wound. It should’ve hurt, but he couldn’t feel the pain. He was almost gone. He was about to slip away. Slowly at first but then increasing rapidly, a strange energy coursed through him, easing him, healing him, and elating him. He relished and savored the touch of the figure’s Element, its grace, as it flooded in and disappeared to try to fix his broken body. But he wouldn’t find out. His thoughts faded, dripping away, and a black emptiness took its place.


    Lleyton remembered his academic years at the Cube. He remembered times of joy and youth. Times of joy that were now lost.


    <hr>


    FOUR YEARS AGO


    Lleyton faced Vince who was crouched, ready to pounce like a snake. Vince was hard to fight in that way. His black hair wild and free, Vince struck first. He planted his foot and stepped off it in a burst of speed. His arm loaded back, his hand curling into a fist, and in a flash, it was in front of Lleyton’s face. But Lleyton had been struck so many times by Vince’s surprising speed that he was ready, used to it. Lleyton rolled under Vince’s sweeping arm, and for a moment, Vince’s body was vulnerable, caught off guard. Vince’s eyes widened as Lleyton’s own fist loomed in, all his might poured into the attack. But the powerful strike that threatened to knock out Vince halted midway, and Lleyton reeled back, rolling onto the ground. Vince stood on one leg, the other high in the air from the kick he had just performed.


    Vince sighed in relief, “Almost got me. You alright, Lleyton?” Vince walked to him and held out his hand.


    Lleyton grabbed it and got onto his feet. “Yeah. I thought that would finally be the one.”


    Vince snorted, “As if.” Vince looked Lleyton’s dirty body up and down. “But maybe you’ll get there,” Vince coughed, “eventually.”


    Lleyton laughed and stared at his hands. They were covered in smears of dirt from sprawling onto the ground. “You would’ve been gone if I landed that,” Lleyton warned, a mad smile on his face. “Way gone.”


    Vince waved his hand. “If. I would’ve taken it like a champ either way.”


    “Good spar, you two,” a deep voice commended. “Especially good response, Vince. Lleyton, come over here.” Vince nodded to Lleyton and went to watch the other spars. Professor Atlan crossed his muscular arms. “You got greedy, Lleyton. You can’t go for an all-or-nothing blow within the first moment of the spar. You have to take it piece by piece. You know Vince. He can recover. You have to take what you can get and wear him down. Cut him off bit by bit. Understand?”


    Lleyton nodded. “Yes, sir.”


    “I don’t think you do. That recklessness is how you get killed. A Revenant would have torn you to pieces,” Atlan sighed. “Spar three more times before class is over. I’ll be watching.”


    Lleyton saluted. “Yes, sir.”


    The lunchroom was loud. The ceiling was a large dome, and it made the noises of hundreds of students echo throughout.


    A hand slammed the table. “They have no business changing it!” Adam yelled, attracting the attention of some nearby students. “They’re skimping out on us, that’s what it is! Look at this! Look at this pathetic slop!” A food tray held an unidentifiable goopy soup. Colored beige, it looked like throw-up. “Ridiculous!”


    Vince tasted his experimentally and rolled it over in his mouth. “It’s not that bad. Tastes rather nice, actually.”


    “That’s because it’s completely synthetic! You’re tasting what the lab rats want you to!”


    Vince shrugged. “Then they did a great job as far as I’m concerned.”


    Adam groaned, “It’s not just about that, it’s about the texture, too. The old meat was way better.”


    “Wasn’t that also artificial?” Lleyton said. He held some of the soup in his spoon.


    “It at least looked and tasted like meat! This is an abomination, and it calls for reform,” Adam looked around the table. “Who’s with me?” No one responded. “Charlotte?”


    A blonde girl, his sister, shook her head. Adam gritted his teeth and sat back down. The table shook under his massive size. “This is why we can’t get anything done. We need to stick together! Our voices will be heard!”


    Vince cleared his throat. “It’s just food, Adam.”


    “And food is very important to the body,” Adam muttered. “It’s what we need and fill ourselves with, and the – “


    “Did you guys hear?” Someone approached their table. “Vanessa is the first of our cycle to get her Element!” A chorus of surprised gasps rang out.


    “No way!” Vince and Lleyton said in surprise.


    “Her? The one with brown hair?” Adam scoffed. “I beat her in a spar the other day. See, it’s all luck – “


    “That’s crazy! Where is she?” Charlotte stood up and asked.


    “She’s getting her first exam right now!” Simon answered.


    “What room?”


    “1501.” The students at the table rose and sprinted into the hallways in a rush of activity. They erupted into wondering chatter.


    “What do you think her Element is?” Lleyton asked.


    “She’s pretty reserved,” Vince noted as they were jogging through the halls. His finger tapped on his chin as he pondered. “I’m going to say she gets to materialize weapons and fire them from afar.”


    “Nah, she’s a silent but deadly type,” Charlotte countered. “Some sort of assassin and stalker, for sure.”


    “It’s literally impossible to guess what she has unless we knew some of her ancestry and like everything about her,” Adam put in. “And even then it’s useless – “


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    Pretending not to hear Adam, Lleyton opined, “How about a combination of both? A ranged stealth type of thing.”


    Vince’s eyes widened. “That could be it,” he nodded. The group arrived at the testing room. Some other students were already there, hovering next to a wide, horizontal window that seemed to take up most of a wall. Vince, Adam, Charlie, and Lleyton pressed onto the glass and peered in. Vanessa stood still in the center of a room, her long brown hair flowing down her back. It had grey tiling and grey walls and a grey ceiling, built for strength rather than appearance.


    Vanessa stayed unmoving. Her eyes were closed.


    “What’s she doing?” Lleyton whispered.


    “Meditating? Trying to gather her Element?” Vince suggested, as if he was debating them as he said them out loud. The students were quiet in anticipation. After a minute, something in the air stirred, a tiny spark. Then Vanessa held out her hand, and a purple flame rose from nothing. It danced elegantly, calmly expanding into the room before Vanessa’s hand dropped and she panted.


    The watching students exclaimed and broke into excited discussion.


    “Purple fire?” Vince said in awe.


    Adam grunted, but his eyebrows were raised.


    Charlotte grinned and rapped on the glass. “Yes, Vanessa!”


    Lleyton stared at Vanessa, his eyes narrowed, holding an odd mix of envy and excitement, a deep hunger. He couldn’t wait for his own Element.


    White light penetrated the lids of Lleyton’s eyes. As he woke, the room came into focus. He was in a hospital room. A full window was on his left, revealing a glittering city of skyscrapers and commotion. He wasn’t on the front lines anymore. He laid in a cot, which was decently comfortable, and a few tubes connected into his right arm. He tried to sit up, but he grimaced as a fierce pain assaulted him inside his chest, his lungs. It still hurt to breathe.


    A set of flowers was on a wooden stand to his left, and next to it in a chair was his family. He tapped on his mother’s head, onto her greying brown hair. She stirred, her eyes mostly closed, but then they widened in recognition. “Lleyton!” Her arms hurled onto him.


    Lleyton returned the hug, smiling. “Hey, mom.” It was silent for a moment or two as they held their embrace, and then Lleyton’s mother began to sob. “I’m alive, and I feel great, so it’s okay,” Lleyton consoled as she continued to cry, “it’s okay. It’s okay,” he repeated, as though saying the words would make them true. His eyes were dark, as if they had lost their spark, and they stared emptily at the ceiling. “It’s okay.”


    “Don’t treat me like a child,” she snapped, tears still falling. “I should be berating you! Getting yourself injured by a Revenant.” Dianne pinched her son who was smiling softly. “A veteran now, hmm.” She studied Lleyton. “It fits you, but don’t you let anything like this happen again.”


    Lleyton chuckled. “I got it, mom.”


    “I know you do,” she said quietly. “Come here, son.” And Lleyton joined his mother again in an embrace filled with tears.


    He had almost died. Almost. That godly figure. Who had saved him? Who had –


    “Tiro Apostolou, are you with me?” Officer Reedman asked.


    “Come again, sir?” Lleyton asked, snapping back to focus. He sat in a chair opposite the officer, whose office was rather blank and boring. A wooden desk separated the two. It had a few papers and a laptop on the right side of it. A few pictures hung on the walls, but most of the room was bleak. It felt like a cage.


    “When you are back in fighting condition you will be sent back out to fight. Until then, you will remain in Motran.”


    Lleyton paused. “No break, sir? No time of leave?” Lleyton leaned forward a bit, almost imperceptibly.


    “No, Tiro.” Tiro was the term for a soldier that hadn’t achieved their Element yet. It was the lowest position in the Legion.


    “But I was on the edge of death,” Lleyton reasoned, his eyebrows slightly furrowing. ”And my mother almost lost her son.” Lleyton was more worried about his mother’s state than his own. “Is there no way?”


    “Seeing how you are,” Reedman paused, studying Lleyton, “in near normal condition, you will return.”


    Lleyton seemed to resign to this, but he was still curious. He had more he wished to know. “Who saved my life on the battlefield?” He had to find out to whom he owed such a debt.


    Reedman looked annoyed for a second, but his eyes scanned a paper report on his desk. His eyebrows raised. “A Venator, by the looks of it. A Lavender Falk.”


    Lleyton wasn’t too surprised, however. To save someone from the brink of death, they had to be powerful, but he was still surprised just the same. “Do you know how I could reach her?”


    “She’s stationed here, matter of fact. Appointed residence is within the Legion’s system.” He typed on his laptop. “Room 15301 in the Legion’s quarters.” Reedman looked up from his laptop and at Lleyton. “Don’t get your hopes up. The chances of meeting a Venator are low, especially if you don’t have the station.”


    “I understand. Thank you, sir.”


    “Don’t strain yourself. Dismissed.” Lleyton shut the door softly, but his eyes showed a conflicting battle of emotions.


    Surprisingly, his mother took to having to leave better than he thought. The fact that he was near good health probably helped with that. But she was still reluctant. It took Lleyton’s pleading for her to leave. It wouldn’t be good for her to stay in a city so close to the front lines, anyway.


    The plaza had a maze of small bushes, winding in a managed and controlled fashion. They stopped at about the level of his knees. Green shrubbery was also growing in small plateau like structures throughout the plaza. They were cut uniformly and to visual perfection. The Legion took appearances seriously.


    Lleyton walked into the building that Reedman had clarified was the home of the Venator, of his savior. After asking the front desk if she, Lavender Falk, was in, to which he received an absolute negative, he was unsure of what to do. He sat on a black chair in the lobby in deep thought, surrounded by rows of other unoccupied chairs, and his mind unwillingly tranced back to the battle. The Revenant that had clawed him had made his weakness apparent. It was no match for the winged Revenant that had engrossed him in shadow and had been slaughtered by a comrade with an Element, but he had still been seriously hurt by it. He would have even been killed by it, and not in a long bout of glory, but in a pure devastating flash of weakness. In comparison to whomever had slayed the winged one, he was useless. He couldn’t handle the weakest of the Revenants and he was no help on the lines, or to his unit, his fellow soldiers in battle, and he was no help to the Legion, and he was no help to his home and family.


    His heart burned, pained with the truth. And the flame that had once fueled him in chase of battle dimmed. His eyes were dreary and hopeless. The sun was beginning to set. He could see it fall and the sky darken along with it through the windows of the lobby. He watched the distant horizon.


    A light sound took from his right - someone had cleared their throat – and Lleyton turned. He found a maiden covered in blood, and she seemed to just have come from a battlefield. With light blonde hair, the beautiful woman stood a pace away from him. She wore a uniform of white and gold, and decorations of many colors hung from her chest. Dark colors seemed to fuse with the white, however, in the noticeable dark tinge of Revenant blood, which ranged from blacks to greens to blues to just about everything. In short, she looked like a muddy rainbow.


    “It’s good that you made it,” Lavender breathed. Lleyton recognized her voice, a voice of dreams. The first topic of discussion should have been about her state, not his. She saved his life. Her starry eyes met his, and for a moment, they showed something deeper, like a flicker of relief.


    “Venator!” Lleyton exclaimed and shot up from his seat. “Are you alright?”


    She nodded and murmured a soft assent, “I am alright.” A moment or two passed between them, wordlessly staring into one another, but then she faltered and waved in the air like she was caught in the wind.


    “You are not, esteemed.” Lleyton took a step closer, his hands out as though ready to support her. “May I take you to the nearest medical center?”


    “I’m just tired,” Lavender sighed as she took the seat next to where Lleyton had sat and closed her eyes. She remained in that way for a while, as if savoring what rest she could get.


    Lleyton nervously fumbled his hands, took a deep breath, and attempted to calm down. “I wanted to thank you, Venator, if I may, for saving my life.” Lleyton slowly lowered onto one knee, as was befitting her station, and stared at the ground as he spoke. He, too, closed his eyes as he contemplated his words. “I am not sure that I deserve it, such grace, but thank you.” He didn’t speak anymore but remained kneeled in the silence, as if it would emphasize his feelings, how deeply in debt he felt, how much gratitude he held.


    Her soft hand, cool to the touch, took his chin and neatly lifted it upwards. He met her gaze, her glowing eyes like the night sky that seemed to promise better and more. Just more. More of what, Lleyton couldn’t figure, but when their eyes caught, he felt more. The world was more. Life could be more. “Raise yourself,” Lavender said. He did, though slowly and clumsily. “Do not say that, that you did not deserve it. When I healed you, I did so to save a life. You deserved it the same as any person, senior, or child. And I made that decision. I decided that you deserved it.” Her eyes seemed to flicker in a twinge of some deeper, emotional pain. “So do not… So just make the best of it,” she paused. “But if you still feel as if you do not deserve it, then make sure that you do. Do not waste what I gave. What chances you gained that you would have never had. To save others, to do more and live to fulfillment. You are living a life that wouldn’t have been. So please do not waste it.”


    The lobby’s fans whirred, and there were some few, distant noises of the building’s attendants, but other than that, the room was silent. It was just them. Lleyton squinted and studied Lavender as he, trembling, tried to find a method, or words, to pour his feelings out. His eyes turned glassy, but inside they had no life to them, they were grey and empty. Whatever he had, whatever desire he had to make his life worth it or deserved had been battered out by the years, regardless of the gratitude that he felt.


    “I can’t,” Lleyton panted, “I fear that it’s already wasted. I won’t ever enlighten with my Element, so you saved a crippled man. I cannot do what you wish.” Lleyton turned away, wiping any forms of tears from his eyes. “I cannot do what you wish.” He took a step away from her, his back turned. “I’m sorry, Venator. I will take my leave.”


    Lavender didn’t respond, but he felt her eyes on him as he left. It was dark outside. The moon hung, shining full in a glowing circle, watching ever closely on the city below. Motran was silent, and Lleyton returned to his hospital bed.